Artykuły dot. negocjacji

Step 2 – relationship building

listopad 28, 2015 - Artykuły dot. negocjacji

Take a minute to reflect on the people with whom you have recently reached a good agreement. What feelings do you have towards them? How do you think they feel towards you? We, people, make decisions based on emotions – so most probably those with whom you built the best agreements are also those towards which you have positive emotions. This is our nature. Relationship building leads to trust. Trust in the context of negotiation, one could say, is the will to expose yourself to another person for the purpose of some benefit. The game is simple. If there is no trust between us, we will hold our talks in an atmosphere of suspicion and the agreement we reach will be a compromise at best (a result reached by both sides sacrificing what they wanted for the sake of reaching an agreement). If there is trust between us, we will hold our talks focused, because the distractor of suspicion is eliminated. Moreover, we will have the courage to expose our interests so that jointly we can work out an agreement which will make each side a winner. A successful agreement could mark the beginning of a lucrative cooperation, which might last for years. That is what negotiations are about. Below you will find some tips on relationship building The foundation of cultivating good relationship is respect. Respect towards the other side can be practiced by:

• listening (eye contact, directing the body towards the speaker, not interrupting, not changing the topic without ending the current one etc.),
• acknowledging their words (making sure we understand their interests e.g. by paraphrase, resembling their interests in stated propositions etc.),
• being punctual (respecting their time),
• giving space for partnership relations (being equal).

A vital aspect is communication. We will not build a good relationship with someone with whom we cannot communicate. Communication is the building block of interpersonal relations because it is the means of contact between people, that is the place where relationship happens.

• listening (focusing on the speaker),
• polite curiosity (the will to talk more about the other side),
• authenticity (not reaching to the means of lies),
• integrity (walk the talk).

Just like most soft skill domains, relationship building is an infinitely wide issue. I encourage you to reflect on your relationships in business and to observe what’s going on with the purpose of learning. A valuable experience would be to meet with people who teach communication and authorities in the field of relationship building and winning people – by spending time with them you will experience the relationship which they create around themselves, which will be an environment for optimal assimilation of practical knowledge.